No people, No tradition, No story, No history, No world view, No explanation, No wonder

His lackeys are lapping it up— It’s unbelievable, lacking all imagination.

Moderator’s comments: It would have helped immensely if Cinquor had quoted some lines from Mr. Cye-Cophant’s book of poems to give us an idea of just how he was able to create a myth without incorporating any of the ingredients that make up one; as it is, Huuk’s throwaway middle stanza does nothing but summarize what’s missing and we are left to fill in the empty spaces of Figwitt’s waste land with the detritus left behind in the wake of his “earth-shaking” effort. Nor does the reference to Mr. Cye-Cophant’s omphaloskepsis assist us in delving further into the recesses of what Cinquor describes as the poet’s non-imagination. Huuk knows better than to leave us dangling like this—the least he could have done was throw us an umbilical cord. Unfortunately, it remains but a shallow effort leading us to re-examine the criteria for permitting him to use this platform as a sounding line.

NB: Huuk’s reference to Cye-Cophant’s lack of a “world view” reminds me of what George Seferis once said in an interview in The Paris Review #50: ” . . .I have no idea about philosophical positions and world views. You know, whenever world views begin interfering with writing—I don’t know. I prefer world views in the sort of dry, repulsive, and (I don’t know how to put it) prosaic way. I don’t like people who try to express world views in writing poetry. I remember once I had a reading in Thessalonike, and a philosopher stood up and asked: ‘But what, after all, Mr. Seferis, is your world view?’ And I said: ‘My dear friend, I’m sorry to say that I have no world view. I have to make this public confession to you that I am writing without having any world view. I don’t know, perhaps you find that scandalous, sir, but may I ask you to tell me what Homer’s world view is?’ And I didn’t get an answer.”

NBB: Also in that issue, right after the Seferis interview, there is a long excerpt from Jim Carroll’s manuscript-in-progress of his book The Basketball Diaries and I don’t have to tell you who the poetry editor of The Paris Review was back then, do I?

Thursday, April 4, 2013

You poets in the know, you always say Waiting and looking is your thing, And presume your next poem promises Answers to questions you think No one’s up to asking but you, well If you think that’s true, try these two Simple ones—who do you think you are, And who asked you for your view?

Bio Degradable

Born in Greece, I was taken at the age of four to the small town of Raymond, WA in 1948. After high school, I attended the University of Washington but dropped out after a year, spent 1963-1964 travelling in Europe and in Greece, settling in Munich until getting drafted into the US Army. After my discharge, I completed my sophomore year at GHC, Aberdeen, WA, then transferred to the UW where I received an MA in English. In 1970, I co-founded the poetry magazine Madrona and also worked for the Seattle Housing Authority before returning to Greece in 1972. I married Eleni in 1980 and we have a daughter, Efiniki, 32, and a son, Anastasios, 30. I'm now semi-retired from teaching ESL in my language school in Meligalas but still writing poetry--which I've been doing for the last forty years. My poems have been published in various literary magazines in the US and abroad. A number of my poems were also included in the anthology How The Net Is Gripped: a selection of contemporary American Poetry (Stride, UK, 1992), and I have two collections of poetry, Sentences (Querencia Books, 1976), and Aural (Singing Horse Press, 1984).